D.C. Circuit Court Amicus Brief of Grid Experts in Support of EPA's Clean Power Plan

On April 1, 2016, Megan Herzog, Cara Horowitz, Sarah Duffy, & Ann Carlson of UCLA Law School’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, together with William Boyd of University of Colorado Law School, filed an amici curiae brief on behalf of five electric grid experts: Benjamin F. Hobbs, Brendan Kirby, Kenneth J. Lutz, James D. McCalley, and Brian Parsons in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s "Clean Power Plan" to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil-fuel-fired electric generating units.

The Grid Experts' amicus brief argues that the Clean Power Plan respects and effectively harnesses the unique features of the electric grid and is consistent with the twin aims of the grid: power reliability and affordability for all consumers. The brief seeks to aid the D.C. Circuit Court in understanding the unique physical features of electricity and the electric grid, and the relevance of those features to the Clean Power Plan. In response to opponents' claims about the effect of the Clean Power Plan on grid operations and on grid reliability, grid experts offer perspective on grid management, maintenance of electric reliability, and how the power system responds to pollution controls like the Clean Power Plan.